The latest in the NHL
Baseball season is (unfortunately) not yet over, and football season's barely underway ... but there are several headlines worth addressing in hockey, which will start before we know it.
Today, the greatest NHL player of them all, Wayne Gretzky, stepped down as coach of the Phoenix Coyotes. The news did not surprise me too much, as the Coyotes are having serious financial troubles and their on-ice outlook isn't much brighter. What surprised me was one factoid in the AP story ... that Gretzky was slated to make $8.5 million this season. To coach, and carry out a multitude of other duties, for a fiscally troubled team in a fiscally troubled league. According to Forbes, in a list it compiled that excluded any NHL names, that's higher than any coach in sports makes, except Phil Jackson of the Los Angeles Lakers.
Earlier this week, the career of someone who's been far more successful in the NHL than Gretzky has as a coach ended. Longtime goalie Olaf Kolzig called it a career after 14 seasons and 303 victories. Kolzig spent nearly his entire career in Washington, though he laced 'em up for eight games with Tampa Bay last season. He went 41-20-11 with a 2.24 goals-against average for the Capitals in 1999-2000 in what was probably his best season.
And the preseason hasn't gone very well for so far for the Chicago Blackhawks. Never mind that they're 0-2-1, though it was troubling to see backup keeper Corey Crawford and the defense allow six goals to the Caps their last time out. I'm far more worried about the loss of Adam Burish, who will miss an estimated six months with a knee injury. No, Burish didn't score a lot, totaling six goals and three assists in 2008-09. But the loss of the fourth-line winger won't help the Blackhawks' depth, which was a big part of the reason they enjoyed so much success last season.
